You are here

Braidwood Journal

With just two months left in the current fiscal year, the city of Braidwood has finally given a public breakdown of finances. But the audit report, presented to the public at the Feb. 12 regular meeting of the City Council, only covered the city’s financial state where it stood on May 1, 2018, with little additional information over what was already publicly available.

Last week, Jim Savio, a CPA with the city’s audit firm Sikich of Naperville, presented the findings of the fiscal year 2018 (FY18) audit to the mayor and commissioners.

Visitors to Braidwood have the chance to get a peek at local history each week at the Braidwood Area Historical Society’s (BAHS) depot museum.

But the historic building that now sits on Center Street served a multitude of purposes over the years, from an actual train depot to a karate studio before being moved in 2009 and rehabbed to house the museum. One of the depot’s most famous personalities was as a candy-colored landmark, a move that divided many in the city about what was an appropriate way to display the local artifact.

The members of the Braidwood Area Historical Society opened the doors of the depot museum for a special exhibit to celebrate President’s Day.

The depot hosted a special open house on Monday, Feb. 18, to mark President’s Day.

The BAHS is also celebrating all the U.S. presidents throughout the month of February, with special displays including photos, magazines, displays, and information on all the presidents, their wives and families, and even their pets. All items will be on display through March 16.

Walk into the Braidwood Whitmore Ace Hardware, and you’ll see all the things you’d expect to see at a small town hardware store: snowblowers for sale, paint, garden tools, gas grills, lightbulbs, and of course, a rack of prom dresses.

Sound strange? It’s become tradition for Whitmore’s. Nestled under the sign for pool chemicals, camping equipment, and coolers, you’ll find racks full of satin and sequins, and it’s all for a good cause.

If Mother Nature had a plan to mess with folks in the Midwest, she certainly succeeded over the past week.

On Jan. 30, the polar vortex edged into North America, plunging areas from the Dakotas to Ohio into a deep freeze. Regionally, air temperatures during the two-day event were recorded as low as -23 degrees Fahrenheit, with wind chills at -53 degrees Fahrenheit.

The weather took a sharp turn as the weekend rolled in, with temperatures topping out in the low- to mid-50’s, melting snow and leaving outlying areas covered in dense fog.

Last week's frigid weather had plenty of folks double checking their pipes and plumbing in an effort to stave off a break.

But when it comes to the city’s end of water output and intake, the event went by with little if any problems.

“This cold spell we just had that was almost four days, we went without any major problems,” said Public Buildings and Property Commissioner Jim Hutton, who oversees operations at the water plant and the wastewater treatment plant.

The area was braced for an uncomfortable blast of frigid air this week, set to level out as the weekend approaches. But once the cold moves out, the rain is set to settle in, which could cause areas of flooding and standing water.

The arctic blast first reared its ugly head on Tuesday morning, with the National Weather Service (NWS) reporting a local temperature of zero with a wind chill of 15 below. Those temperatures were set to be the warmest the area would see until Friday afternoon, with a wind chill warning in effect Tuesday night through Thursday afternoon.